Academic Technology Center
Teaching with Technology Collaboratory

The Teaching with Technology Newsletter

February 2006

Welcome to the fifth edition of the Teaching with Technology Newsletter, a service offered by the Academic Technology Center (ATC) in conjunction with its Teaching with Technology Collaboratory website. The newsletter is sent each month, bringing you technology news, announcements of professional development opportunities, research articles, and tips on using technology for teaching.

Teaching with Technology Tips

Tips for Evaluating Websites

With information on virtually every imaginable topic there is, the integrity of information found online can often be put at risk if browsers are not sure how to check the authenticity of a website. Here are some basic tips for evaluating web resources on the Internet:

  1. Review the URL of the website. Does it appear to be a personal page? (If so, you will need to investigate the author and his/her credentials a little more thoroughly.) Does the URL appear to be from a trusted source? Was it linked to from a reputable organization (for example, the ASEE)?
  2. Does the site list its own sources for any information displayed? Does the information appear in a “factual” format or does it appear to be the opinion of the author?
  3. Is contact information easily located in the site?
  4. How current is the content on the site? Does the page have a date listed for when the information was last updated?
  5. Is the site full of pop-up windows and advertisements?

Quickly scanning websites before the source is trusted helps you build a resourceful digital library of content that you can use in your courses and in research. For more information, visit Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask.

Customizing the myWPI Course Menu

When a new course is created in myWPI, the default menu consists of blue buttons and contains these items: Announcements, Course Information, Staff Information, Course Documents, Assignments, Communication, Discussion Board, External Links, and Tools.

This menu can be customized to meet your course needs. You can rename, remove or hide the existing buttons, and add new content areas that you may need. You can also change the color scheme and format of the menu. A variety of button styles are available, or you can use a link-based menu which looks more like a typical web page menu.

Hiding or removing buttons that you are not using makes it easier for your students to find your content. If you are unsure about removing a content area, you can make it unavailable instead.

Changing your course menu design can also help your course stand out from other courses in myWPI. This helps students remember which course site they are in, and can help you if you are using myWPI in multiple courses or sections. For example, you could color-code your sites to use green menu buttons for an undergraduate course site and purple ones for a graduate course site.

For more information, see the following:

Creating Classroom Community Using myWPI

Using myWPI to create a sense of community in your class helps engage students in both campus-based learning environments, as well as distance learning courses. Students in your course can get to know you and each other using the “Staff Information” that you provide, by updating their own personal homepages, and through collaboration using some of the tools myWPI offers.

Staff Information

Updating the staff information in your myWPI site allows your students to get to know you. While especially helpful in distance learning courses, campus-based students can also view your contact information, helpful websites, and other personal and/or relevant information. To add/update your staff profile in your myWPI course, go to Control Panel > Course Tools > Staff Information. As an alternative, you can also put your personal information in a discussion board posting or in your syllabus.

Student Homepages

Student Homepages allow students to get to know each other. If student homepages are turned on in your myWPI site, each student in your course has the opportunity to create a personal homepage accessible to other students in the course. Students can include a picture, a basic profile, and some interesting web links that may help other classmates in getting to know them. If assigning group projects, students in distance learning courses can get to know and connect with their team members through Student Homepages. Students can also customize the look of their homepages by using basic HTML coding.

Discussion Boards

Discussion Boards are a way to continue classroom dialogue outside of the traditional classroom environment. For distance learners, it is also a way to connect and stimulate dialogue with other classmates on course content. Because the discussion board is asynchronous, students can connect through the discussion board at a time that is convenient for them.

Announcements Tool

Announcements are a great way to inform students of course updates. When you add new content, make course material available on your myWPI site, or have a syllabus update, you can post an announcement that appears for students as soon as they access your course site. Regularly updating course announcements also encourages students to play an active role in your myWPI course site by logging in to check for new information on a routine basis.

Related resources include:

What’s Your Learning Style?

We all realize that different people learn in different ways. You’ve probably run across people who need to see things visually in order to learn them and others who can learn from only reading a description. Some people need information laid out for them sequentially, while others can fill in the sequence from getting an overview of the big picture. The differences in how people learn are referred to as “learning styles”. Most people can learn in multiple ways, but they are often strongest in one learning style. There are several learning style models, each of which provides different insights into how people learn.

What is your learning style? Try completing one of these learning style surveys to get a better understanding of your learning style.

Why are learning styles important? Having an awareness of learning styles makes you more conscious of the need for a variety of learning materials and activities for your students. For example, when you lecture and show PowerPoint slides with text on the screen, you appeal to students who learn by listening and reading, but you leave out students who learn best by seeing visual representations. Therefore, you may want to add graphics or images to your PowerPoint slides to address the learning styles of those students.

Technology can assist with adapting your course content to meet the needs of a variety of learning styles. There are a variety of ways to incorporate text, images, graphics, videos, audio, and hands-on activities into your courses. The related resources linked below provide information on how to use a variety of technologies. To discuss specific ideas with an instructional technology consultant, send email to atc-ttc@wpi.edu or call 508-831-5220.

This is the first in a three part series on using technology to adapt to different learning styles and teaching styles. In next month’s newsletter, discover your own teaching style.

For more information, see the following:

Removing Animation from PowerPoint Slides

Using animation in PowerPoint can often add a touch of flair, but when it's overused, it can quickly become a distraction for your audience. If you have slides that you would like to remove animation from, such as slides from a textbook publisher, or older slides created with a PowerPoint animation scheme, the steps below will help you to remove the animation.

Note: If you think you will need the animated version of your presentation at a future time, save a backup copy of the slides before removing the animation. For example, you could create a backup copy of lecture1slides.ppt and call it lecture1slides-animated.ppt.

To remove animation created by Animation Schemes from all slides:

  1. Open the PowerPoint presentation you wish to remove the animation from.
  2. Go to Slide Show > Animation Schemes and click on No Animation to select it, then click the Apply to All Slides button at the bottom of the list. This removes all animation schemes.

Removing Custom Animations

Depending on how the animation in your file was created, you may still have Custom Animations in your presentation. If you are in the Normal view, these slides have a small star icon under the slide number. To get to the Normal view, go to View > Normal from the toolbar.

If you have any slides with custom animations, click on the slide thumbnail to select it. Then go to Slide Show > Custom Animation. A list appears with all of the animations in the slide. You can click on each one individually and then click the Remove button, or click on the first one, then hold down the Shift key and click the last one to select the entire list before removing.

Turning Off Automatic Lists in Microsoft Word

One of the more annoying things about Microsoft Word occurs when you enter text that Word thinks should be a bulleted or numbered list. Word indents the content and places a bullet or number series at the beginning of it. In addition, Word assumes the next paragraph will be part of the same bulleted list.

If and when Word does this, you may cancel the formatting by immediately pressing CTRL+Z. If you want to turn off the automatic formatting altogether, follow these steps:

  1. From the Tools menu, select AutoCorrect Options. A dialog box appears with several tabs. Select the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
  2. Remove the checkmarks from the Automatic Bulleted Lists and Automatic Numbered Lists check boxes.
  3. Click OK.

Annotate Screen Captures Using SnagIt

After taking a screen capture using SnagIt, the image appears in the SnagIt Capture Preview window. Various editing tools are available on this preview page, allowing you to add arrows, highlighting, and geometric shapes to your image. In addition, by clicking the Studio button in the top toolbar, you gain access to a broader array of tools including images, stamps, arrows & pointers, and clipart.

Teaching with Technology Research Corner

The Effects of Online Formative and Summative Assessment on Test Anxiety and Performance

In on October 2005 issue of The Journal of Technology, Learning, and Assessment, researchers found that when students take tests and exams online, there is lower cognitive test anxiety, test threat, and quiz use. These statistically significant findings suggest that online testing may be a more accurate means of assessing student knowledge than testing conducted in a traditional manner. Read the complete study...

Teaching with Technology News

Interwise iMeeting Help and Support Site

With the launch of Interwise iMeeting in January for campus-wide availability, the ATC has rolled out a website with a wealth of information on iMeeting. The site has specific content for participants and for presenters and schedulers, including information on how to use the tool, the technical requirements for using it, and technical troubleshooting tips. If you have questions about Interwise or are interested in learning how to use it, contact the Interwise support team in the ATC at connect@wpi.edu. View the Interwise iMeeting Help and Support Center.

New Content in the Teaching with Technology Collaboratory

Professional Development Opportunities

myWPI Overview for New Faculty

February 8, 2006, 1:00-2:00pm
Anderson Lab B in Gordon Library

The session covers an overview of what myWPI is and how it is used in the WPI community, major system features, how to request course sites, and the basics of using myWPI to post course content. Click the link above to register.

Using myWPI for Organizations

February 9, 2006, 2:00-3:00pm
Anderson Lab B in Gordon Library

This session is intended for students, faculty or staff members who wish to use myWPI for student organizations, faculty/staff workgroups, committees or similar groups. Topics covered include how to request an organization site, security and membership options, posting materials, communication features, and tips for using organization sites effectively. Click the link above to register.

Opportunities Outside WPI

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Last modified: Mar 01, 2006, 14:58 EST
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